There are various types of manufacturing processes which involve the combination of a plurality of strands of cords, cables, wires or the like which during processing are combined with each other, with other materials, or both. Where it is necessary to combine a plurality of such strands of material during either continuous or intermittent manufacturing operations, it is frequently convenient that the strands be coiled such as to provide the capability of continuously feeding out substantial lengths of the strands. In order to have available in a manageable form substantial lengths of coiled strands, it is commonly known to employ spools. The coiled strands are reeved around the spools for storage, and can be dispensed through rotation of the spools about the longitudinal axis thereof.
One such example of the employment of spools to store and dispense coiled strands is involved in the rubber industry. For example, in the rubber industry it is common to simultaneously employ a plurality of steel reinforcing cords which are stored on and dispensed from spools. The spools are normally mounted in an array which is commonly referred to as a creel. While creels may differ in various details they commonly consist of an array of spindles which are mounted in a substantially vertical framework having spindles which may project therefrom.
Each spool includes a body portion on which the steel cord is reeved, a receiving aperture extending through the body portion, and two (2) flanges extending radially outwardly from the ends of the body portion. The steel cord is reeved between the flanges, and the receiving aperture is adapted to engage the spindles of the creels. Furthermore, while the spools employed for steel cord are normally constructed of relatively light metal materials, the full spool with its capacity of steel cord approaching the radially outer extremity of the flanges may weigh on the order of forty to eighty pounds.
The spools are normally packaged in standard rectangular shipping cartons or containers in which the spools are tightly packed in circumferential engagement with adjacent spools in an upright position with longitudinal axis vertically aligned. Cartons are commonly sized such as to receive three spool by four spool layers arranged in three layers constituting a total of 36 spools. In some instances, the containers may accommodate 72 spools having a reduced axial length.
In many manufacturing operations, the cartons are positioned proximate to the creels, and an operator manually removes empty spools from the spindles and replaces them with full spools of steel cord. While manual loading of the creels is possible, it has the disadvantage that over the period of a work day, an operator may become sufficiently fatigued, particularly in relation to the placement of spools on the higher spindles, that the overall loading time for creels may become excessively long. In addition, the size and strength of an operator becomes highly significant in effecting the loading of spools over a period of time.
Therefore, in order to obviate a high degree of reliance on the size and strength of operators, there is a need for a spool handling device which provides for the releasable engagement of the spool so that it can be vertically lifted or lowered with relative ease using a hoist.